Article trading process

ABSTRACT

Articles such as compact discs are traded among a plurality of members who are registered in a common community. Each member has an account including a trading credit balance and a mailing address. A user interface is provided that allows a member to enter articles that the member owns and is willing to trade and articles that the member wants to own. The user interface also receives article trading instruction messages. An administration computer hosts the plurality of members and facilitates article trades among the members. The administration computer identifies matches between owned and wanted articles. For each identified match, an article trading instruction message is sent to the article owner requesting that the article owner mail the owned article to the mailing address of the member who wants to own the article. If the member sends the article, a trading credit is posted to the member&#39;s account and a trading debit and a monetary charge is posted to the member&#39;s account who will be receiving the article. Each traded article has the same trading credit. A priority algorithm is used to select the member who will receive the article if there is more than one member who wants an article that another member owns and is willing to trade. The priority algorithm is based in part on a member score that is a function of the relative value of the articles that a member owns and sends to another member compared to the relative value of the articles that the member wants and receives from another member, the relative value of the articles being determined by a demand for the article compared to a supply for the article among the members. A portion of the monetary charge is placed in a pool for distribution to the content creator of the article.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional PatentApplication No. 60/779,759 filed Mar. 6, 2006.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Online trading sites allow potential buyers and sellers of goods andservices to locate each other. One popular type of online trading sitesallow persons who have used goods to offer the goods to others andreceive some form of value for the goods. Certain online trading sitesthat are designed for used goods allow for barter-type transactions.Although many barter-type trading sites exist, there is still a need forimproved sites.

BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

In one preferred embodiment of the present invention, articles aretraded among a plurality of members who are registered in a commoncommunity. Each member has an account including a trading credit balanceand a mailing address. A user interface is provided that allows a memberto enter articles that the member owns and is willing to trade andarticles that the member wants to own. The user interface also receivesarticle trading instruction messages. An administration computer hoststhe plurality of members and facilitates article trades among themembers. The administration computer identifies matches between ownedand wanted articles. For each identified match, an article tradinginstruction message is sent to the article owner requesting that thearticle owner mail the owned article to the mailing address of themember who wants to own the article. If the member sends the article, atrading credit is posted to the member's account and a trading debit anda monetary charge is posted to the member's account who will bereceiving the article. Each traded article has the same trading credit.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The above summary, as well as the following detailed description ofpreferred embodiments of the invention, will be better understood whenread in conjunction with the following drawings. For the purpose ofillustrating the invention, there is shown in the drawings an embodimentthat is presently preferred, and an example of how the invention is usedin a real-world project. It should be understood that the invention isnot limited to the precise arrangements and instrumentalities shown. Inthe drawings:

FIGS. 1-15 are data tables associated with the trading process.

FIGS. 16-23 show user interface display screens.

FIGS. 24-25, taken together, show a combination flowchart/entityrelationship diagram for the trading process.

FIG. 26 shows a table associated with Risk Assessment Scores.

FIG. 27 is a combination flowchart/entity relationship diagramassociated with an artist contribution process.

FIG. 28 is a flowchart of the artist contribution process.

FIGS. 29-33 are display screens that show how members can share theirinterests with other members.

FIG. 34 shows a combination flowchart/entity relationship diagramrelated to the sharing process.

FIGS. 35 and 36 are screen displays related to an envelope supplyingprocess.

FIG. 37 shows a combination flowchart/entity relationship diagramrelated to the envelope supplying process.

FIG. 38 shows a flowchart related to the envelope supplying process.

FIG. 39 shows an image of a front view of a sample envelope.

Most of the figures are self-explanatory and thus most figures are notdescribed in any detail. In the entity relationship diagrams, one-to-onerelationships are shown with lines containing circles at each end, andone-to-many relationships are shown with lines containing a circle atone end and an arrow at the other end. Each of the figures showpreferred embodiments of the present invention, and other embodimentsare within the scope of the present invention.

FIG. 40 shows a high level hardware architecture for implementing thetrading process.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

Certain terminology is used herein for convenience only and is not to betaken as a limitation on the present invention.

The present invention is described in the context of a preferredembodiment of a web-based software application commercialized on theWorld Wide Web at lala.com, which is a music trading site. Lala.com is aservice of la la media, inc., Palo Alto, Calif. However, the scope ofthe present invention is not limited to this particular implementationof the invention. The present invention is described in the context of aplurality of distributed computers, all of which are linked together byan electronic network, such as the Internet. The computers may be anytype of computing device that allows a user to interact with a web sitevia a web browser. For example, the computers may be personal computers(PC) that run a Microsoft Windows® operating system. The computers mayalso be handheld, wireless devices.

I. Definitions

The following definitions are provided to promote understanding of thepresent invention.

-   article: an article is an item or commodity. An article can be in    “tangible” form or can initially be in “intangible” form, but can be    put in tangible form when traded. For example, a member of the    community may own an article such as a music recording, video    presentation, or printed material such as a book in electronic form    only, along with rights to copy the article into a tangible form    such as onto a portable electronic medium (e.g., CD, DVD) or paper,    as well as the rights to transfer the article to another person.    This type of intangible article can be traded in its tangible form.-   own: ownership as used herein includes full ownership rights    conveyed in accordance with the “first sale doctrine” (discussed    below). Ownership also includes ownership of a limited use license    (e.g., based on time, playback amounts). Accordingly, members can    trade articles that convey only the remaining license rights,    wherein the members would indicate the remaining license rights in    their list.-   album: one or more audio recordings issued together, originally    released on 12-inch phonograph records (usually with record covers)    and later on cassette audio tape and now usually on compact disc.    Albums and compact discs (CDs) or “discs” are used interchangeably    throughout the disclosure.-   administration computer: a computer or processor that administers    the trading platform for the members. The administration computer    may be a single computer or a network of computers, such as a server    or network of servers.

II. Trading Process

A. Overview of Trading Process

In one preferred embodiment of the present invention, articles aretraded among a plurality of members registered in a common communityusing a computer-implemented process. Each member has an account thatincludes a trading credit balance and a mailing address. Auser-interface allows a member to enter articles that the member ownsand is willing to trade and articles that the member wants to own. Theuser interface also allows the member to receive article tradinginstruction messages. An electronic network, such as the Internet, isused to communicate between the user interface and an administrationcomputer that is associated with the community. The administrationcomputer hosts the plurality of members and facilitates article tradesamong the members via the electronic network. The administrationcomputer identifies matches between owned and wanted articles. For eachidentified match, the administration computer sends an article tradinginstruction message to the article owner notifying the article ownerthat the article is requested. If the article owner agrees to send thearticle, the article owner is provided with the mailing address of themember who wants to own the article. The administration computer thenposts a trading credit to the member's account who agreed to send thearticle and posts a trading debit and a monetary charge (interchangeablyreferred to herein as a “trading fee”) to the member's account who willbe receiving the article. The monetary charge is preferably posted onlyupon receipt by the administration computer of an article tradingconfirmation message from the member who was sent the article indicatingthat the member received the article in acceptable condition, or after apredetermined time has passed since the article was shipped. Thus, ifthe member does not provide an article trading confirmation messageafter the predetermined period of time (which is a time period greaterthan an expected shipping receipt date), it is presumed that the articlewas received in acceptable condition. If the member who was sent thearticle indicates that the article was received in unacceptablecondition, the administration computer posts a trading credit andcancels the monetary charge to the member who was sent the article.During the estimated “in-transit” time period of the article, thetrading credit and monetary charge is only temporarily posted and is notmade final. Thus, the trading debit is not made final, and no monetarycharge is officially made until the receipt confirmation stage. Forexample, if payment is made via a credit card, no credit card charge issubmitted until receipt confirmation.

Each trading credit entitles a particular member to receive one articlefrom any other member who is not necessarily a member that theparticular member sent articles to. That is, the article trades areone-way article trades and members do not trade directly with eachother.

In one preferred embodiment of the present invention, each tradedarticle has the same trading credit. In one scheme, traded articles areall of the same type (e.g., audio compact discs (CDs), such as CDscontaining musical recordings; audio recordings on other forms ofcomputer-readable media). Even if all articles are of the same type, allarticles do not have the same marketplace value. For example, popular,recently released CDs are inherently more valuable than older and/orless popular CDs. In the embodiment wherein each traded article has thesame trading credit, members who own more valuable articles and agree toship them to other members are preferably rewarded via a priority schemethat entitles the member to a higher priority for receiving articlesthat they want, as opposed to being rewarded with differing amounts oftrading credits. More specifically, the administration computer uses apriority algorithm to select the member who will receive the article ifthere is more than one member who wants an article that another memberowns and is willing to trade. The priority algorithm is described inmore detail below, but can be generically described as being based uponone or more supply/demand indicators and trading behaviors. In a large,robust community of members, having a lower priority rating does notnecessarily mean that the member will never receive requested articles.It merely means that the member may have to wait longer to receive thearticle. In some instances, however, a member might never receive arequested article that is particularly popular.

In alternative embodiments of the present invention, the articles may beof different types, such as books, CDs, and digital video discs (DVDs).That is, one type of article may be traded for another type of article.

To minimize abuses and promote fairness in the community, members areinhibited from trading under certain conditions. One condition is whentheir trading credit balance is less than a predetermined amount,thereby preventing members who have a trading credit balance that isless than the predetermined amount (e.g., zero) from receiving anyarticles wanted by the members. Another condition is when a member hasmore than a predetermined amount of trades that have been initiated butnot yet completed (“in-transit” trades). The administration computeroptionally assigns risk assessment scores to members based on theirtrading activity, as described in more detail below. The risk assessmentscores can be used to set the trading credit balance number and thein-transit limit so that different members can have different tradingcredit balance numbers and in-transit limits. For example, members whohave a steady, high level of trading activity may be allowed to have avery large number of in-transit articles and may also be allowed to runa negative trading credit balance.

In one preferred embodiment, members have the option to indicate ontheir list of owned articles whether they are agreeable to trade it. Inthis embodiment, members are not required to send an article after beingrequested to do so by the administration computer. The member can eitherrespond to the administration computer with a message to that effect, orif no response is received from the member within a predetermined timeperiod, the administration computer can presume that the member does notwish to send the article. That is, members are never required to trade.They are only notified of an opportunity to trade. Over time, mostmembers who repeatedly receive requests for articles that they do notwish to send but have not marked as such, will eventually either changethe article designation to “owned, not willing to trade” (“keep it”setting) or will send the article in response to a subsequent request.The “keep it” setting suppreses notifications of trading opportunities.If the “keep it” option is not set, the article owner will continue tosee the notification of trading opportunity unless the administrationcomputer deletes it due to fulfillment by another member, but thearticle owner does not have to act on the trading opportunity.

In another preferred embodiment, the user interface further allows amember to transfer a portion of their trading credit balance to anothermember.

B. Detailed Disclosure of Trading Process

FIGS. 1-14 are data tables associated with the trading process.

FIG. 16 shows a user interface display screen (interchangeably referredto herein as a “display screen” or a “page” or a “web page”) that amember is shown after login. Various status messages are shown regardingthe status of trading activity, and an upper region of the displayscreen marked with an oval includes icons of the identities of eightother members whose article collections (here, CDs) are similar to thelogged in member. (The oval is shown for highlighting purposes only anddoes not appear on the actual display screen.)

FIGS. 17-23 are additional screen displays, as follows:

FIG. 17 is an album details page.

FIGS. 18 and 19 are want list and have list pages, respectively.

FIG. 20 is a trading history page.

FIGS. 21-23 show pages associated with shipping and receiving CDs duringtrade activity. FIG. 21 shows an agree to ship page, FIG. 22 shows tradeshipping information page, and FIG. 23 shows a trade receivedconfirmation page.

FIGS. 24-25, taken together, show a combination flowchart/entityrelationship diagram for the trading process.

FIG. 40 shows a high level hardware architecture for implementing thetrading process.

Method for Filtering Tradeable Demand

The administration computer generates a list of tradeable requesteddiscs and stores them in the Demand table (FIG. 4) by processing inreal-time all the discs in members' want lists and stored in the Wantlist table (FIG. 11). The goal of such processing is to remove discswhich meet the following conditions:

-   -   1. All discs requested by members with a suspended account flag        in the User Table (FIG. 6).    -   2. All discs requested by members with a canceled account flag        in the User Table (FIG. 6).    -   3. All discs requested by members with a trade suspended flag in        the User Table (FIG. 6). Trade suspended flags can be assigned        to a member by administrators due to fraud concerns or by the        billing system due to failed payment.    -   4. All discs requested by members with an invalid or missing        credit card flag in the User Table (FIG. 6).    -   5. All discs requested by members with a vacation mode flag in        the User Table (FIG. 6) indicating they do not wish to receive        discs at this time.    -   6. All discs requested by members with a trade balance less than        their min_balance.        -   a) The member's trade credit balance is calculated from the            User Score Table (FIG. 9) as follows: Shipping (total discs            shipped) minus Receiving (discs sent to customer via trade)            plus Bad_Receive (discs received in bad condition or never            received);        -   b) The min_balance is obtained from the Trade Limits Table            (FIG. 10) based on their assigned limitid. The limitid is            assigned to the member based on their trading history (see            Risk Assessment Score).            This method is invoked any time on the following conditions            occurs thereby yielding real-time tradeable demand in the            system:    -   1. Member's suspended flag is removed;    -   2. Member's canceled flag is removed;    -   3. Member's trade suspended flag is removed;    -   4. Member's credit card is successfully updated;    -   5. Member's vacation flag is removed;    -   6. Member's trade balance changes due to trade activity        including Shipping a disc via trade, Receiving a disc via trade,        Confirming a disc received via trade, or when a previously        Shipped disc via trade by the member is confirmed by the        receiving member;    -   7. Member's Trade Limits change due to a change in the limitid        assignment

Method for Filtering Tradeable Inventory

The administration computer generates a list of tradeable owned discsand stores them in the Inventory table (FIG. 5) by processing inreal-time all the discs in members' have lists which are stored in theHave List table (FIG. 12). The goal of such processing is to removediscs which meet the following conditions

-   -   1. All discs owned by members with a suspended account flag in        the User Table (FIG. 6).    -   2. All discs owned by members with a canceled account flag in        the User Table (FIG. 6).    -   3. All discs owned by members with a trade suspended flag in the        User Table (FIG. 6). Trade suspended flags can be assigned to a        member by administrators due to fraud concerns or by the billing        system due to failed payment.    -   4. All discs owned by members with an invalid or missing credit        card flag in the User Table (FIG. 6).    -   5. All discs owned by members with a vacation mode flag in the        User Table (FIG. 6) indicating they do not wish to receive discs        at this time.    -   6. All discs with a keep it flag in the status field in the Have        List Table (FIG. 12)    -   7. All discs owned by members with a trade balance greater than        their max_balance value allowed.        -   a. The member's trade credit balance is calculated from the            User Score Table

(FIG. 9) as follows: Shipping (total discs shipped) minus Receiving(discs sent to customer via trade) plus Bad_Receive (discs received inbad condition or never received);

-   -   -   b. The max_balance is obtained from the Trade Limits Table            (FIG. 10) based on their assigned limitid. The limitid is            assigned to the member based on their trading history (see            Risk Score Algorithm).

    -   8. All discs owned by members with an Intransit value greater        than their max_outbound value allowed.        -   a. The member's Intransit value is calculated from the User            Score Table (FIG. 9) as follows: Shipping (total discs            shipped) minus Good_Ship (discs sent to customer via trade            and confirmed as received in good condition) minus Bad_Ship            (discs sent to customer via trade and confirmed as received            in bad condition or never received);        -   b. The max_outbound value is obtained from the Trade Limits            Table (FIG. 10) based on their assigned limitid. The limitid            is assigned to the member based on their trading history            (see Risk Score Algorithm).            This method is invoked any time on the following conditions            occurs thereby yielding real-time tradeable demand in the            system:

    -   1. Member's suspended flag is removed;

    -   2. Member's canceled flag is removed;

    -   3. Member's trade suspended flag is removed;

    -   4. Member's credit card is successfully updated;

    -   5. Member's vacation flag is removed;

    -   6. Member changes the keep it flag associated with a disc;

    -   7. Member's trade balance changes due to trade activity        including Shipping a disc via trade, Receiving a disc via trade,        Confirming a disc received via trade, or when a previously        Shipped disc via trade by the member is confirmed by the        receiving member;

    -   8. Member's Trade Limits change due to a change in their limitid        assignment

Method for Notifying Owners of Matched, Tradeable Discs

The administration computer generates notifications to the owners oftradeable discs in the Inventory Table (FIG. 5) which are matched withtradeable discs in the Demand Table (FIG. 4) as follows:

-   -   1. Administration computer generates a list of distinct disc ids        from the Demand Table (FIG. 4). Each disc id is identified as a        cover art only or cover art optional based on the following:        -   a. If at least one of the discs for a given disc id has a            cover art optional attribute in the status field in the            Demand table, the disc id is identified as cover art            optional.        -   b. If all the discs for a given disc id have a cover art            required attribute in the status field in the Demand table,            the disc id is identified as cover art required.    -   2. When a member logs in or checks their Have List, the        administration computer matches:        -   a. The list of distinct disc ids in the Demand Table            identified as cover art optional is compared with the            member's disc ids in the Inventory Table (FIG. 5). Any disc            matched is flagged to the member as a tradeable disc and            listed under their requested discs list.        -   b. The list of distinct disc ids in the Demand Table            identified as covert art only is compared with the member's            disc ids in the Inventory Table (FIG. 5) which have the            cover art available attribute in the status field. Any disc            matched is flagged to the member as a tradeable disc and            listed under their requested discs list.    -   3. Periodically (e.g., every 8 hours), the administrator        computer executes a batch to identify matches between discs in        the Demand Table and discs in the Inventory Table and emails the        owners of matched discs. The batch accounts for cover art        preferences and availability as specified in 2 above.

Method for Posting Executed Trades

Once the receiver is selected for a trade by means of the priorityalgorithm, the administrator computer will perform the following to postthe trade:

-   -   1. Provide the Owner of the disc with the Receiver's current        mailing address from the Address Table (FIG. 7)    -   2. Send an electronic message to the Owner of the disc with        confirmation of the trade using the contact information in the        User Table (FIG. 6)    -   3. Send an electronic message to the Receiver of the disc with        confirmation of the trade using the contact information in the        User Table (FIG. 6)    -   4. Create a row in the Shipping Table (FIG. 13) for the executed        trade with a pending status until confirmed by the receiver.    -   5. Update the shipper trade credit balance by incrementing the        shipping field by one in the User Score Table (FIG. 9)    -   6. Update the receiver trade credit balance by incrementing the        receiving field by one in the User Score Table (FIG. 9)    -   7. Deletes the entry for the shipper's disc from the Have List        Table (FIG. 12) and the Inventory Table (FIG. 5)    -   8. Deletes the entry for the receiver's disc from the Want List        Table (FIG. 11) and the Demand Table (FIG. 4)

Method for Handling Trade Confirmation

The receiver of a disc via trade is presented with a trade confirmationpage to report the outcome of the trade. The administrator computerupdates the shipper's and receiver's trade credit balance based onreports submitted by the receiver of the disc. The trade credit balanceis updated by making the following changes in the User Score Table uponconfirmation by the receiver:

-   -   1. If the receiver reports that disc was received in good        condition,        -   a. The trade credit balance for the receiver is updated by            incrementing by one the good_receiver value for the receiver            in the User Score Table        -   b. The trade credit balance for the shipper is updated by            incrementing by one the good_ship value for the shipper in            the User Score Table        -   c. Updates the receive condition for the trade in the            Shipping Table to create a billable event for the receiver        -   d. Adds a row for the disc for the receiver in the Have List            Table (FIG. 12)    -   2. If the receiver reports that the disc was never received or        was received in bad condition or was the wrong disc received        -   a. The trade credit balance for the receiver is updated by            incrementing by one the bad_receiver value for the receiver            in the User Score Table        -   b. The trade credit balance for the shipper is updated by            incrementing by one the bad_ship value for the shipper in            the User Score Table        -   c. Adds a row for the disc for the receiver in the Want List            Table (FIG. 11) so the disc can be received via another            trade    -   3. If the receiver does not submit a report within x days after        the trade was initiated (e.g., 14 days), the administrator        computer will contact the receiver electronically to request a        confirmation.    -   4. If the receiver does not submit a report within y days after        the trade was initiated (e.g., 21 days), the administrator        computer automatically confirm the trade as received in good        condition and,        -   a. The trade credit balance for the receiver is updated by            incrementing by one the good_receiver value for the receiver            in the User Score Table        -   b. The trade credit balance for the shipper is updated by            incrementing by one the good_ship value for the shipper in            the User Score Table        -   c. Updates the receive condition for the trade in the            Shipping Table to create a billable event for the receiver        -   d. Adds a row for the disc for the receiver in the Have List            Table (FIG. 12)

III. Priority Schemes

A. Overview of Priority Schemes

In one preferred embodiment of the present invention, each article has aquality score that is a function of the current demand for the articleto the current supply of the article among the members. Each member hasan account that includes a trading credit balance that reflects thedifference between the number of articles that the member previouslyowned and traded to other members and the number of articles that weresent to the member by other members. Each account also includes aquality balance score. The quality balance score is the sum of thearticles previously sent by the member that had a quality score greaterthan the quality score of the article that the member currently wants toreceive minus the sum of the articles previously received by the memberthat had a quality score greater than the quality score of the articlethat the member wants to receive. In this embodiment, the priorityalgorithm referred to above uses at least the trading credit balance andthe quality balance score as factors in the algorithm to select themember who will receive the article.

In an alternative embodiment of a priority scheme, the members receivean overall priority that is not tied to a specific wanted article, andthe overall priority is used as a factor in deciding the priority forreceiving the specific wanted article. The member's priority is stillcalculated based upon supply/demand factors. For example, asupply/demand score for each article that a member ships (at the timethat the member ships it) may be compared to an average supply/demandscore for all articles (at the time that the member ships it) to obtaina supply/demand score ratio, and a running average of the supply/demandscore ratio may be used as a factor in calculating the priority.

Other factors that may be used in the priority algorithm include adistance between mailing addresses of identified matching members andthe amount of time since a member last received an article. For example,it is preferable to ship articles to members who are close to each otherso as to reduce delivery time and thereby increase user satisfactionwith the trading process. Likewise, it is preferable to give priority tomembers who have the longest time span since the previous delivery.Different weightings may be assigned to each of the factors discussedabove.

Various combinations and permutations of these priority schemes may beused. The supply/demand calculations may be based upon supply/demandamong the members or a marketplace supply/demand calculation. Oneadvantage of the priority schemes described herein is that they simplifythe trading process by allowing for one-to-one trading, while stillrewarding members who trade popular articles with a valuable benefit,namely, increased speed and likelihood of receiving wanted articles fromother members.

B. Detailed Disclosure of Priority Schemes

Priority Algorithm and Quality Score and Risk Assessment Score

If the owner of a disc agrees to ship a disc with two or more membersrequesting the disc in the Demand Table (FIG. 4), the administratorcomputer selects a member to receive the disc as follows:

-   1. A priority score for the disc in question is computed for each    member requesting the CD as follows:

${{Priority}\mspace{14mu} {Score}\mspace{14mu} {for}\mspace{14mu} {{Member}(i)}\mspace{14mu} {for}\mspace{14mu} {{Disc}( j)}} = {\quad{\begin{bmatrix}{{Predetermined}\mspace{14mu} {WeightFactor} \times} \\{{Trading}\mspace{14mu} {Credit}\mspace{14mu} {Balance}\mspace{14mu} {for}\mspace{14mu} {{Member}(i)}}\end{bmatrix} + {\quad {\begin{bmatrix}{{Predetermined}\mspace{14mu} {WeightFactor} \times} \\{{Quality}\mspace{14mu} {Balance}\mspace{14mu} {{Score}(j)}{\; \mspace{11mu}}{for}\mspace{14mu} {{Member}(i)}}\end{bmatrix} + {\quad{\begin{bmatrix}{{Predetermined}\mspace{14mu} {WeightFactor} \times} \\{{Days}\mspace{14mu} {Since}\mspace{14mu} {Last}\mspace{14mu} {receive}\mspace{14mu} {score}\mspace{14mu} {for}\mspace{14mu} {{Member}(i)}}\end{bmatrix} + {\quad\begin{bmatrix}{{Predetermined}\mspace{14mu} {WeightFactor} \times} \\\begin{matrix}{{{Distance}\mspace{14mu} {in}\mspace{14mu} {miles}\mspace{14mu} {between}\mspace{14mu} {{Member}(i)}\mspace{14mu} {mailing}\mspace{14mu} {address}}\mspace{14mu}} \\{{and}\mspace{14mu} {the}\mspace{14mu} {owner}\mspace{14mu} {of}\mspace{14mu} {{disc}(j)}\mspace{14mu} {mailing}\mspace{14mu} {address}}\end{matrix}\end{bmatrix}}}}}}}}$

-   2. Selecting the member with the highest priority score to receive    the disc in question. Trading Credit Balance is calculated from the    User Score Table (FIG. 9) as follows:    -   Shipping (total discs shipped by member via trade)    -   minus    -   Receiving (total discs received by member via trade)    -   +    -   Bad_Receive (discs received in bad condition or never received);        Quality Balance Score(j) is equal to:    -   [Σ discs shipped by member(i) with a Quality Score at time of        trade>=Quality Score disc(j)]    -   minus    -   [Σ discs received in good condition by member(i) with Quality        Score at time of trade>=Quality Score for disc(j)]    -   Where Quality Score for disc(x) is a function of the total        demand in the Demand Table for disc x and the total inventory in        the Inventory Table for disc x.    -   As example, the Function to determine the Quality Score for        disc(x) could be computed as:        -   If Total Inventory for disc(x)>=1,

Quality Score for disc(x)=[Total Demand for disc (x)]²÷[Total Inventoryfor disc(x)]

-   -   -   Else,

Quality Score for disc(x)=[Total Demand for disc (x)]

The Risk Assessment Score

The Risk Assessment Score is computed as a function of the number oftrades executed by the member and the ratio of good trades to totaltrades. The User Score Table is used to compute the Risk AssessmentScore.

For example, the Risk Assessment Score can be derived from User ScoreTable as follows:

[WeightFactor(i)]×[Good_Ship]+[WeightFactor(j)]×[(Good_Ship)÷(Good_Ship+Bad_Ship)]

For each Risk Assessment Score or range of scores, the administrationcomputer assigns members to a unique LimitID in the Trade Limits Table(FIG. 10). Each LimitID has been pre-assigned with certain trading limitvalues that correspond to assessed levels of risk for trade. Forexample, FIG. 26 shows a table that can be used to interpret the use ofRisk Assessment Scores, LimitIDs, and Trading Limits.

IV. Artist Contribution for Traded Articles

A. Overview of Artist Contribution for Traded Articles

The first-sale doctrine is a limitation upon copyright that is codifiedin the Copyright Act of 1976, 17 U.S.C. §109. The doctrine of first saleallows the purchaser to transfer (i.e., sell or give away) a particular,lawfully made copy of the protected work without permission once it hasbeen obtained. That means the distribution rights of a copyright holderend on that particular copy once the copy is sold. Accordingly, whenused articles, such as musical recordings on albums or CDs, books andthe like, are resold, neither the artists who created the content of thearticles, nor any entities that marketed, manufactured or distributedthe articles, receive any additional revenue as a result of the sale ofthe used articles. Used articles usually sell for less than newarticles. A certain percentage of consumers who are interested in thearticle will purchase a used article instead of a new article so as tosave money, thereby reducing revenue earned by the artists and theirmarketing partners. The artists and their marketing partners typicallycannot compensate for the used sales by raising the original price ofthe articles because the marketplace typically sets the price for newarticles. Furthermore, the marketability of used articles has increaseddramatically since content on digital media is smaller and more compact,and less likely to degrade than recordable media forms such as albums(vinyl) and cassette tape that were previously used.

One ramification of this situation is that so-called “strugglingartists” have to struggle even harder to earn revenue. Anotherramification is that some content creators and their marketing partnersare starting to develop complicated schemes to restrict or prevent reuseof content by anybody other than the original purchasers. These schemesare generally not well-received by consumers who believe that theyshould be able to resell used articles. The impacts on the strugglingartists and the developing conflicts between content creators and theirmarketing partners and consumers could potentially be reduced if thecontent creators and their marketing partners could receive additionalrevenue from trades and sales of their used articles.

In one preferred embodiment of the present invention, one or more poolsof funds are created for distribution to a plurality of content creatorswho produce content that is sold to individuals in the form of anarticle. The trading scheme described above is used as the platform forthe creation of the pool(s) of funds. In one scheme, the administrationcomputer automatically allocates a portion of each trading fee to beplaced in the pool(s) of funds for distribution to the plurality ofcontent creators. Preferably, the administration computer records datafor each trade, including the content creator associated with eachtraded article, and then allocates the pool of funds to individualcontent creators in proportion to the trades related to articlesproduced by the respective content creators. However, other types ofallocation schemes are within the scope of the present invention. A userinterface may be provided that allows content creators to register withthe administration computer and set up content creator accounts to allowfunds to be transferred from the pool of funds to respective contentcreator accounts. The portion of the trading fee may be a predeterminedfixed amount or a predetermined percentage of each trading fee, such asabout 20% of the trading fee.

In an alternative embodiment, one or more of the pools of funds aredistributed to a plurality of entities that market, manufacture ordistribute content that is sold to individuals in the form of anarticle, and the administration computer automatically allocates aportion of each trading fee to be placed in the pool(s) for distributionto the plurality of entities. That is, content creators and/or theirmarketing partners can be compensated for used sales of their articles.

The amount of funds placed in the pool(s) does not necessarily have tobe amount associated with a trading fee. Instead, the amount may beplaced in the pool(s) for every trade, regardless of whether or not atrading fee is incurred. The amount may simply be a fixed amount orfixed percentage of some benchmark that is unrelated to any trading fee.This scheme may be used for trading sites that do not charge tradingfees or for trading sites that charge trading fees but wish tocompensate content creators and/or their marketing partners separatefrom any trading fee accounting process.

Furthermore, the artist contribution scheme need not be limited totrading sites and is equally applicable to any store (eitherbricks-and-mortar or internet-based (e.g., website)) that sells orbrokers used articles. In this embodiment, an administration computerautomatically allocates an amount to be placed in the at least one poolof funds for distribution to the plurality of content creators for eachpurchase made of a previously sold article. In this embodiment, theadministration computer primarily functions to maintain inventory ofarticles for sale, instead of, or in addition to, articles for trade,but shares the capabilities described above for tracking funds to bedistributed to content creators and their marketing partners.

B. Detailed Disclosure of Artist Contribution for Traded Articles

FIG. 27 is a combination flowchart/entity relationship diagram, and FIG.28 is a flowchart for the artist contribution process.

V. Community Sharing of Member Interests and Searching Methodologies forFacilitating the Sharing of Member Interests

A. Overview of Sharing of Member Interests and Searching Methodologiesfor Facilitating the Sharing of Member Interests

As described above, one preferred embodiment of the present inventionprovides a community of members who can trade music recordings. Tofacilitate a sense of community among the members, members are permittedto view music interest data of other members. Music interest dataincludes music recordings that each member listens to, articles of musicrecordings (e.g., CDs) that each member owns and is willing to trade,and articles of music recordings (e.g., CDs) that each member wants toown. To encourage sharing of music interest data, the administrationcomputer automatically identifies other members who have similar musicinterest data with a specific member. The identities of the othermembers are then automatically displayed to a member when the memberlogs into the community. For example, the identities of the eight mostsimilar members are shown. The member can then navigate directly to themusic interest data of any of the similar members and view the musicrecordings that the other member listens to, owns and wants to own. Byviewing such data, members may learn of music recordings that the membermay not have otherwise considered owning. In turn, this may encouragethe member to add certain music recordings to the member's list ofwanted music recordings. The global effect of this sharing process is toincrease the overall level of trading activity among the members andstrengthen member affinity to the community.

A similar experience may occur as a result of a search process by amember. Members are provided with a search function that allows themember to search for music recordings by keyword, or by artist, album,song, member or the like. The search is processed by a search engine andresults are returned and displayed to the member. In addition to thesearch results, for certain types of searches, the member is shown theidentities of other members who have similar music interest data as thesearch request. Some examples are as follows:

-   1. Search input is “Jay Farrar.” Eight member identities are shown    who have a similar interest in Jay Farrar, as determined from one or    more of the music interest data.-   2. Search input is “rhythm.” Eight member identities are shown who    have a similar interest in rhythm music, as determined from one or    more of the music interest data.

In one preferred embodiment of the present invention, identities ofmembers in a common community of registered members who have similarinterests in music recordings are displayed to other members. Themembers can trade articles containing music recordings with each other.An administration computer maintains music interest data of membersincluding music recordings that each member listens to, articlescontaining music recordings that each member owns, and articlescontaining music recordings that each member wants to own. Theadministration computer applies a distance function to at least some ofthe music interest data to determine how similar the music interests ofa member is to the music interests of other members. The identities of apredetermined number of other members who are determined to have similarmusic interests as the member are displayed to the member via a userinterface. The member may then navigate to a display of at least some ofanother member's music interests by selecting the member's identitydisplayed on the user interface. In one scheme, all of the musicinterest data (i.e., listened to music, owns and wants) is used asfactors in the distance function and all of another member's musicinterest data is displayed.

In another preferred embodiment, the user interface further allowsmembers to enter searches for articles containing music recordings orproperties of articles containing music recordings, and thedetermination of similar music interests is made using the search entry.

In another preferred embodiment of the present invention, identities ofmembers are displayed who have similar sets of articles as other membersin a common community of registered members. The common community allowsmembers to list articles that members own and articles that members wantto own and to trade articles among each other. An administrationcomputer maintains data of articles that each member owns and articlesthat each member wants to own. The administration computer uses at leastsome of the article data to determine for a member how similar the othermembers' sets of articles are to the set of articles owned by themember. In one preferred scheme, a distance function is used for thesimilarity determination. The identities of a predetermined number ofother members who are determined to have similar sets of articles as themember are displayed to a particular member. The member can thennavigate to a display of another member's list of articles by selectingthe member's identity, such as via a hyperlink. In one scheme, theidentities of the other members are automatically displayed when themember logs into the community. The determination for each member of howsimilar the other members' sets of articles are to the set of articlesowned by the member is made by comparing to only the lists of articlesthat the members own, or by comparing only the lists of articles thatthe members want, or by comparing the list of articles that the membersown and the list of articles that the members want. Other permutationsof comparisons are within the scope of the invention, such as comparingthe list of articles that a member wants to the list of articles thatother members own and want.

In yet another more generic embodiment, article interest search data,which may be an article or a property of an article, is entered by amember and the similarity determination is made between the enteredarticle interest search data and article interest data of the othermembers (e.g., articles that each member owns, and articles that eachmember wants to own). In one scheme, all of the articles are of the sametype (e.g., all music recordings on CDs). In another scheme, thearticles are of different types (e.g., music recordings on CDs, videorecordings on DVDs, books).

Although a specific distance function is described in detail below, thescope of the present invention includes other types of distancefunctions, as well as other algorithmic techniques for determining thesimilarity of one set of data to another set of data.

B. Detailed Disclosure of Sharing of Member Interests and SearchingMethodologies for Facilitating the Sharing of Member Interests

FIGS. 29-33 are display screens that show how members can share theirinterests with other members. For example, FIG. 29 shows the resultantdisplay screen for a search of the artist “Jay Farrar.” An upper regionof the display screen marked with an oval for convenience includes iconsof the identities of eight other members who like Jay Farrar the most,as determined by a similarity algorithm. If desired, a member can thenclick on one of the identities and view the CD collection of thatmember, as shown in FIG. 30. Filtering options can be used to narrowdown the collection to a subset that matches the filtering options, asshown in FIG. 31.

In one embodiment of the present invention, members can view “listendata” of other members, as shown in FIG. 32. The listen data may be thelisten data associated with one of the members located in a search, orthe listen data may be the listen data shown for one of the membersdisplayed in FIG. 16 whose collections are similar. In one preferredembodiment of the present invention, the listen data is collectedautomatically by a software plug-in that keeps track of any music thatis played from the user's computer and/or any music that is downloadedinto a portable music player, such as an MP3 player or iPod®. FIG. 33shows a listen plugin download screen display.

Plug-ins for tracking listened to music are well-known, and any knownplug-in is suitable to enable this feature. One commercially availableplug-in that is suitable for this function is a plugin for the “YahooMusic Engine,”, commercially available as a free download from Yahoo!®Inc.

FIG. 34 shows a combination flowchart/entity relationship diagramrelated to the sharing process.

Method for Selecting Members Similar to a User

A plurality of members logs in via the internet and browse discs listedin the Disc Table (FIG. 1).

Members add discs they want to their Want list Table (FIG. 11).

Member adds a number of discs owned to their Have List Table (FIG. 12).

A plurality of members logs in via the internet and installs the ListenPlugin on their PC. As music is played, the Listen Plugin collectslisten data and uploads to the Listen Table (FIG. 15). If the memberlistens on their portable device and then synchronizes with their PC,any listen data reported by the device is also collected and uploaded tothe Listen Table.

User X subsequently logs in via the internet and clicks on theirpersonal home page. The administration computer then invokes a methodfor retrieving a list of other members similar to User X.

The administration computer method relies on a Similarity Algorithm todetermine a list of similar members to User X. The Similarity Algorithmis computed by using various distance functions between users of thecommunity.

For example, when requested for members similar to a member A, theSimilarity Algorithm applies the distance function across all members(A, X) and returns the first N members by distance ascending. The closerthe distance to zero, the more similar the members are considered to be.Alternatively, the Similarity Algorithm can also use a “score” where thehigher the score between two members the more similar they are.

An embodiment of the Similarity Algorithm can utilize the list of discsowned by user X to find similar members (It is important to note thatthe Similarity Algorithm could also utilize other articles such as thelist of discs requested, or a list of music listened to):

-   -   1. The first distance function is the cardinal of the        intersection between the discs owned by User X and the rest of        the members in the community. This function is computed as        follows:        -   a. The administration computer utilizes User X unique            identifiers, the userkey and the md5key from the User Table            (FIG. 6), to retrieve the current list of discs owned by            User X from the Have List Table.        -   b. The administration computer then utilizes the list to            compute a histogram from the

Have List Table which yields one row per user in the Have List Table andthe number of discs owned by each user which are also owned by User X.

-   -   -   c. The distance between User X and any of the members (e.g.,            User Y) is computed as follows:            -   Distance(X, Y)=|A|−|A inter B|,            -   where A is the total number of discs owned by User X,            -   B is the total number of discs owned by User Y, and            -   |A inter B| is the total number of discs owned by User Y                also in List Y, obtained from the histogram in step (b).

    -   2. A second distance function can also be used to address a        drawback with the cardinal distance function where members with        large collections of discs will be similar to everyone. The        second distance function alleviates the issue by having the        distance be the ratio of the size of the intersection by the        average size of the each users owned disc list;        -   Distance(A,B)=(|A|−|A inter B|) ((|A|+|B|)/2); where A is            the total number of discs owned by User X, B is the total            number of discs owned by User B and |A inter B| is the total            number of discs owned by User B and also in A,

    -   3. A third distance is computed by computing the distance        between the probability distribution of the users' listen list        against a genre. The Kullback Leibler Distance (KL) is defined        by:

Σ(p*log(p/q)) for each genre

-   -   For example, if comparing user A and User B with the following        probabilities of listen data in each genre:

User A: {genre1: 0.1, genre2: 0.4, genre3: 0.5}

User B: {genre1: 0.2, genre2: 0.3, genre3: 0, genre4: 0.5}

The KLvalue=0.1*log(0.1/0.2)+0.4*log(0.4/0.3)+0.5*log(0.5/0)+0*log(0/0.5)

-   -   4. The Algorithm has the ability to use the most appropriate        distance functions in a given context. The first two functions        allow for very fine grain comparisons whereas the third provides        more robust coarse grain comparisons.    -   5. The Algorithm can also take advantage of a user's most recent        query and fine-tune the set of similar members based upon that        additional information. When a member A performs a search for a        certain artist S, the distance functions can be modified to        increase the member's weight in that artist. In the first two        distance functions, this may consist of just “adding” all or a        subset of the discs by that artist to the member's collection        (for the time of the similarity computation); Similarly the        third distance function can be tuned by increasing the        probability of the artist's genre in the member's listen table.

VI. Process to Supply Packaging/Shipping Materials

A. Overview of Process to Supply Packaging/Shipping Materials

In one preferred embodiment of the present invention, members areprovided with postage-paid mailing envelopes and article cases so as toallow the members to mail articles that the members own to other membersof the common community as part of the article trading process. Theenvelopes have no addressee printed thereon. The members are instructedby the administration computer as to who the addressee should be when amatch is located. Although no postage for trades is paid when mailingenvelopes and cases to members, there is still a cost to theadministrating entity in purchasing, printing and mailing the envelopesand cases to the members. Accordingly, it is desirable to control thecirculation of envelopes and cases so that the supply and demand ofenvelopes and cases is kept at a level where all members have a readysupply of envelopes and cases so that articles can be shippedimmediately upon a match being identified, without incurring unnecessarycosts by oversupplying such materials to the members.

To achieve this goal, the administration computer automatically outputsshipment orders to mail the envelopes to the members and theadministration computer includes business logic rules for determiningwhen to output the shipment order, the quantity of envelopes to ship,and whether to include cases in the shipment order. In one scheme, theadministration computer sends an electronic message to a member upon theoutput of a shipment order related to the member requesting that themember respond to the electronic message by indicating whether themember wants an additional quantity of envelopes. In another scheme, theadministration computer automatically mails the envelopes to the memberbased on the outputted shipment order. Predictive rules based upon atleast a member's trading behavior may be used to determine when tooutput the shipment orders.

To further minimize unnecessary packaging costs, the user interface mayoptionally suppress icons and selection options that allow a member torequest additional envelopes and cases if the administration computerdetermines based on member trading histories that the members should notneed such materials. Alternatively, the ability to request additionalenvelopes and cases may be limited to certain quantities based on membertrading histories. For new members, an initial shipment of mailers mayoccur once the user lists a predetermined number of articles (e.g., fiveCDs) that are available to trade, or if the member submits a credit cardnumber to be maintained on file by the administration computer,regardless of whether any articles are listed as being available totrade.

B. Detailed Disclosure of Process to Supply Packaging/Shipping Materials

FIGS. 35 and 36 are screen displays related to an envelope supplyingprocess. FIG. 35 shows the screen display when a member is prompted toorder more envelopes. FIG. 36 shows a screen display that informs themember that they are not eligible to receive more envelopes at thecurrent time.

FIG. 37 shows a combination flowchart/entity relationship diagramrelated to the envelope supplying process. FIG. 38 shows a flowchartrelated to the envelope supplying process. FIG. 39 shows an image of afront view of a sample envelope.

One suitable plastic case for use in mailing CDs is a Clam Shell CD CaseModel No. S-6765, commercially available from Uline®, Waukegan, Ill.However, any plastic case may be used.

Business logic for the envelope supplying process

The Administration Computer updates the envelope counts and plastic casecounts in the Score Table (FIG. 9) every time a trade is initiated orconfirmed for a member based on the following rules:

-   -   1. When a member agrees to ship a CD via trade, the member's        envelope count is decreased by one.    -   2. When a member agrees to ship a CD via trade, the member's        plastic case count is decreased by one.    -   3. When a member confirms receiving a CD via trade, the member's        plastic count is increased by one.        The Administration Computer updates the envelope counts and        plastic case counts in the Score Table (FIG. 9) every time a        shipping or confirmed as follows:    -   1. The member's envelope count is increased by the number of        envelopes in the SKU in the shipping order.    -   2. The member's plastic case count is increased by the number of        plastic cases in the SKU in the shipping order.        The Administration Computer determines if a shipping order        should be generated every time a member is part of trade based        on the following rules:    -   1. If member does not have a valid address in the Address Table        (FIG. 7), then the member cannot order any envelopes.    -   2. If member has a valid address in the Address Table (FIG. 7),        but has never been shipped any envelopes, then the        administration processor generates a shipping order for a SKU        with 5 envelopes and 5 plastic cases.    -   3. If a member has 5 or less trades and the member envelope        count is less than 2 and the member has a valid address in the        Address Table (FIG. 7), the member is notified of the option to        order additional envelopes. The member can order a SKU with 5        envelopes and 5 plastic cases.    -   4. If member has more than 5 trades and the member has less than        5 envelopes and member has a valid address in the Address Table        (FIG. 7), then the member is notified of the option to order        additional envelopes. The SKUs available for order are        determined as follows:        -   i. Members with 5 or more trades, can order the following            SKUs:            -   1. 5 envelopes, 0 plastic cases            -   2. 10 envelopes, 0 plastic cases        -   ii. Members with 15 or more trades, can also order the            following SKUs:            -   1. 20 envelopes, 0 plastic cases        -   iii. Members with less than 5 plastic cases on hand, can            also order the following SKUs:            -   1. 5 envelopes, 5 plastic cases            -   2. 10 envelopes, 10 plastic cases

VII. Addtional Embodiments of the Present Invention

Embodiments of the present invention relate to a system and method foron-line searching of information. More particularly, embodiments of thepresent invention relate to a system and method for a community-basedsearching and related applications.

On-line search methodologies are well known. However, conventionalsearch methodologies that use cached databases to conduct searchescannot take into consideration information added subsequent to caching,or any real-time information. In addition, convention searchmethodologies do not take into consideration multi-dimensional inputsthat encompass information both provided directly from the user andrelevant information from an on-line community to which the user is amember.

An example of an on-line community may include a membership to acommunity dedicated to the exchange of information about music, and thebuying or trading of legally-purchased music. According to the RecordingIndustry Association of America (RIAA), nearly 30,000 album titles arereleased each year. With nearly 3 million titles available, largeresellers generally only stock about a few thousand titles, or less than1% of all available music. An on-line community may be formed toexchange information about music, and more specifically, to exchangelegally-purchased CDs on fellow community members.

A novel on-line searching methodology for conducting searches based onreal-time information, taking into consideration multi-dimensionalinputs, and capable of returning multi-dimensional search resultsrelevant to the multi-dimensional inputs.

Embodiments of the method for a community-based search are described inthis detailed description of the invention. In this detaileddescription, for purposes of explanation, numerous specific details areset forth to provide a thorough understanding of embodiments of thepresent invention. One skilled in the art will appreciate, however, thatembodiments of the present invention may be practiced without thesespecific details. Furthermore, one skilled in the art can readilyappreciate that the specific sequences in which methods are presentedand performed are illustrative and it is contemplated that the sequencescan be varied and still remain within the spirit and scope ofembodiments of the present invention.

The present invention provides a personalized search, in real-time, thattakes into consideration multi-dimensional inputs, some of which are auser's personal preferences and recommendations, and some of which arebased upon information of other members of an identified community withsimilar interests and/or background, and yielding not only searchresults as requested by the user, but also recommendations that arerelevant to the user. The user has the option of identifying arelationship with any particular member in the community. The methodthen takes the relationship into consideration in conducting the search.The method of the present invention is able to search any database,bring all data into a search engine in real-time, and take intoconsideration multi-dimensional data feed, or multiple inputs, toproduce multi-dimensional outputs. In one embodiment, the database maybe created and maintained as part of the search engine. In anotherembodiment, existing information concerning the user is updated inreal-time upon the completion of the search.

As an example, in an on-line community, members can trade-in CDs theyhave for CDs they want from other members. If a CD is not immediatelyavailable for trade, members can buy the CD new or as a digital downloadat retail prices. Accordingly, the multi-dimensional inputs may includeuser profile, which may include what CDs the user has to trade and whatCDs the user wants, and profiles of other members in the community thatare deemed relevant either by the user or the search engine. A user mayindicate the relevance to any specific members of the community byindicating certain members as being “friends” or as sharing certaincommon interests. The search engine may also identify relevant membersas part of the search by identifying implicit links, such as behavioralhistory and past communications. The profiles of these members are thentaken into consideration. The search result is therefore tailoredspecific for the user.

The search engine may be implemented with clustering of fuzzy logicalgorithms that are capable of isolate similarities and differences fromthe community in order to achieve a more personalized search. Dependingupon the application, different weightings may be assigned to thevarious similarities and differences. In other words, the search resultsmay be tailored by adjusting the weightings of different parameters. Inaddition, the search engine will also take into consideration anyanomalies that are inconsistent with the norm. Such anomalies are eithereliminated from the search or provided a reduced weighting during thesearch. Therefore, intentional manipulation of the search results isminimized and eliminated.

In operation, a general search is first performed based upon the generalsearch parameters provided by the user, and then a second search may beconducted, considering the other multi-dimensional parameters, toproduce a refined, personalized search result. Specifically, the presentinvention is directed to a search and recommendation platform. Theplatform is configured to gather and index data in real-time from aplurality of members to generate search results and recommendations ofproduct or content custom tailored for the individual member. Along withcontent or product, the platform also makes recommendations of membersof the platform that are associated with such product or content. Theplatform uses a number of inputs and behaviors to computerecommendations for its members, which may include lists of content orproduct owned or desired by the user members, frequency of use of suchcontent and product, links, explicit and implicit, between individualplatform members, levels of inventory and demand for the content andproduct available on the platform, product or content rating and reviewsby members related or unrelated to a specific member, and physicalgeography.

The method also takes an user's list of desired content or product,their individual list of owned content or product, any known uses by theuser of the content or product, and any other known inputs and behaviorsfor the user to generate either a unique recommendation of new productor content for the user based on comparisons to the plurality of membersof the platform, or lists of recommended members whose lists of contentor product owned, desired, or used are relevant to the user.

The method of the present invention also assigns a proper weighting toeach member in the platform for the purpose of generating betterrecommendations for a user. The weighting of each member is unique tothe user for whom the recommendations are generated and can also vary ifthe user has made a specific request for a content or product. Thecalculation of the weighting for members may be based on other members'likeness to the user based on comparisons of their lists of desiredcontent or product, lists of owned content or product, and known uses ofcontent or product, such as an overlap in the have list and want list inthe on-line music community example. The weighting may also depend uponthe similarities in members' explicit links to other members of theplatform. In addition, the weighting may take into consideration amember's knowledge level of the requested content or product. Again inthe example of the on-line music community, an artist would be assigneda heavier weighting than a novice.

The weighting may also depend on a member's overall influence asdetermined by the number of items in their lists of owned content orproduct that are desired by other members of the platform. Furthermore,the weighting may also take into consideration a member's ability topredict the demand or success of content or product as determined by thetiming and number of items placed in the members' list of desired orowned, before such content or product is considered to be in high demandas measured by the number of members that include it in their list ofdesired content or product or by external market sales, revenue, ordistribution data. Lastly, the weighting may be influenced by a member'sability to predict the success of content or product as determined bytheir use of content or product (e.g., listen to songs) before suchcontent or product is considered to be in high demand as measured by thenumber of members that include it in their list of desired content orproduct or by external market sales, revenue, or distribution data. Theforegoing examples are for illustrative purposes only. Otherwise factorsmay also be taken into consideration to influence the weightings ofvarious factors to tailor to the specific applications of the searchengine.

The platform of the present invention is also capable to compute memberscores and indexes for recommendations of content or product inreal-time based on changes to aggregate lists of content or productowned, desired, used, or any other known inputs or behavior by theplurality of members. Correspondingly, the method generates a sortedlist of recommended content or product based on the total instances ofproduct or content in the lists of content or product owned or desiredby the members, the frequency of use of such content and product, andany other known inputs and behaviors with the proper weight assigned toeach member. The weight assigned is unique to the user for whom therecommendations are generated.

The search engine also includes logic means that sorts recommendationsbased on the overall levels of inventory and demand based on theaggregate lists of content or product owned or desired by the entireplurality of members or a subset of such members. The logic means alsofilters or sorts an user's recommendations based on product alreadyexisting in the user's list of desired content or product or list ofowned content or product. The logic means may also be programmed tointentionally introduce recommendations in a random process to increaseexposure of content or product by its members;

Therefore, the system of the present invention captures the variousmembers' have lists', defined as items owned, and ‘want lists’, definedas items desired, captures members frequency and timing of use of thecontent or product, allows members to find content or products and makespersonalized recommendations of related content or product or members ofthe service, allows members to create explicit associations with othermembers (e.g., friends list, people to bookmark), and allows its membersto browse and compare lists of content or product owned or desiredbetween a member and one or more members in the service.

The system of the present invention is able to integrate the platform toan online service that enables commerce transactions (purchase,subscription, or barter) of the content or products and enablespromotion and direct marketing of the content or product to the platformmembers. The service uses members' lists of desired or owned product totarget specific members with varying promotions of content or productand uses member scores to target specific members with promotions ofcontent or product for the purpose of predicting future demand for theproduct.

The system and method of the present invention allows for trading, orbartering, and keeps track of items that have been bartered and thevalue given up in the past. In addition, in the bartering or trading,actual money need not be involved as members may optionally choose tokeep “credits” for the product traded and such credits may be used topurchase or exchange any desired product from other members in thecommunity. The value of each bartered product is weighted to reflectfactors such as past value received and demand. User profiles are alsoconsidered to further refine the weightings to optimize businessvariables.

Accordingly, the present invention provides a system and method forconducting barter transactions between members of a service withoutusing explicit prices or values assigned to the items. Instead, themethod utilizes a one for one barter system supported by a matchingalgorithm that uses as inputs the members' ‘have lists’, defined asitems owned available for barter, and ‘want lists’, defined as itemsdesired. The system and method include logic means that allows for ‘manyto many’ barter transactions, where individuals may send one of theiritems to a member, while receiving a desired item from a differentmember. The system and method also include logic means for computingimplicit values for have or want items based on actual or predicteddemand for the items by the member community of the service, and forassigning values to the members of the community based on the implicitvalues of items they have bartered with other members.

In addition, the system and method include logic means for computing a‘risk’ value for each member such that they are allowed to receive itemsfrom their want list from other members first having to give up an itemthey possess based on the probability that will give up an item of acertain value and/or category in the future. A logic means may also beincluded for prioritizing the list of members that are possiblerecipients of an item by examining member behaviors which may includebut not limited to implicit values of items bartered, risk values of themembers, stated preferences by the members, and implicit preferencescomputed by the platform. In addition, the system and method of thepresent invention also includes a logic means that utilizes levelsavailable inventory and demand of the aggregate population to optimizebarter transactions between members, and a logic means that weights themembers' physical proximity when prioritizing member matches for bartertransactions.

In the example of the on-line music community in which legally-purchasedmusic is bartered or traded, the intellectual property rights attachedto the music are exhausted after their initial sale. The doctrine ofexhaustion allows an owner of a lawfully acquired CD to dispose of thepossession of that copy without permission or payment of additionalroyalties to the copyright holder. As a result, artists were notcompensated from the sale of used CDs.

The system and method of the present invention may optionally provide asystem to compensate the original owners of intellectual property rightsfor legal trading of music or other protected works, under which theoriginal owners would receive no compensation.

Accordingly, there is provided a method for distributing compensationdirectly or indirectly to the original authors, publishers, and anyother entities that may benefits from the licensing, sale or use of theoriginal copyrighted or protected content or product based on theresale, trading, or bartering of such copyrighted content or product.Such compensation may include, but are not limited, to royalties, fixedpayments, marketing, or promotional agreements, and other forms ofmonetary or non-monetary compensation. In addition, such compensationmay depend on the weighting assigned to factors such as popularity anddemand. Any such trading or bartering is tracked by the system of thepresent invention.

Finally, the system and method of the present invention provides a userinterface framework that enables multi-dimensional browsing of membersof a platform and content or product associations for those members inthe platform. The framework integrates with the platform to enablerelationships between the dimensions displayed. For example, the contentdisplayed serves as input to determine members displayed and vice versa.In addition, the framework enables true personalization of the browsingexperience for the individual using the framework by integrating withthe platform to generate unique content across each dimension based oncharacteristics of the individual using the framework.

The user interface may be based generally on AJAX (AsynchronousJavaScript And XML) programming, a Web development technique forcreating interactive web applications. Small amounts of data areexchanged with the server behind the scenes to make the rendering of theweb pages more robust, and increase the Web page's interactivity, speed,and usability.

The user interface framework includes a member browsing element capableof retrieving and displaying lists of members from an underlyingplatform based on numerous associations with a specific member or with aspecific piece of content or product listed in the platform, relayinginputs to the underlying platform for varying the association criteriafor retrieving lists of members from the underlying platform, navigatingthe list of members retrieved if they all do not fit in a single page,and selecting a specific member from the list. In addition, theframework includes a content or product browsing element capable ofretrieving and displaying lists of content or product from an underlyingplatform that are associated with a specific member or with anotherspecific piece of content or product listed in the platform, relayinginputs to the underlying platform for changing, filtering or sorting thelist of content or product retrieved and displayed from the underlyingplatform, navigating the list of content or product retrieved if theyall do not fit in a single page, and selecting a specific content orproduct from the list.

The present invention is also capable of simultaneously displaying themember browsing element and the content or product browsing element in asingle page which is originally generated by selecting a specificmember. The system uses the member browsing element to retrieve anddisplay lists of members from the underlying platform that areassociated with the specific member selected (e.g., friends of themember selected). The system also uses the content or product browsingelement to retrieve and display lists of content or product associatedin the underlying platform with the specific member selected, andcontains user interface (UI) elements for changing the associationcriteria for retrieving the list of members displayed in the memberbrowsing element. For example, the individual may request to viewmembers explicitly linked to another member or view members that areimplicitly considered as similar by the platform. The system furtherincludes UI elements for changing, filtering, or sorting the list ofcontent or product associated with the specific member that is retrievedand displayed. As part of the retrieval, the user interface passesunique values that identify the individual using the framework. In thismanner, the platform can return a personalized list of content orproduct based on the individual enabling comparisons, recommendations,sorting, and other operations on the content or product listed using theindividual's preferences in the platform.

The present invention provides a system for simultaneously displayingthe member browsing element and the content or product browsing elementin a single page generated by selecting a specific content or productitem in the platform. The system uses the content or product browsingelement to retrieve and display lists of content or product associatedin the underlying platform with the specific content or product itemselected. The system also uses the member browsing element to retrieveand display lists of members from the underlying platform that areassociated with the specific content or product item selected. UIelements are incorporated for changing, filtering, or sorting the listof content or product associated. As part of the retrieval, the userinterface passes unique values that identify the individual using theframework. In this manner, the platform can return a personalized listof content or product based on the individual; enabling comparisons,recommendations, sorting and other operations on the content or productlisted using the individual's preferences in the platform.

In accordance with an embodiment of the present invention, instructionsadapted to be executed by a processor to perform a method are stored ona computer-readable medium. The computer-readable medium can be a devicethat stores digital information. For example, a computer-readable mediumincludes a read-only memory (e.g., a Compact Disc-ROM (“CD-ROM”) as isknown in the art for storing software. The computer-readable medium canbe accessed by a processor suitable for executing instructions adaptedto be executed. The terms “instructions configured to be executed” and“instructions to be executed” are meant to encompass any instructionsthat are ready to be executed in their present form (e.g., machine code)by a processor, or require further manipulation (e.g., compilation,decryption, or provided with an access code, etc.) to be ready to beexecuted by a processor.

To summarize, the following embodiments of the present invention areprovided:

-   1. A platform configured to gather and index data in real-time from    a plurality of members to generate search results and    recommendations of product or content custom tailored for the    individual member, the platform making recommendations of members of    the platform that are associated with such product or content.-   2. A method for taking an individual's list of desired content or    product, their individual list of owned content or product, any    known uses by the individual of the content or product, and any    other known inputs and behaviors for the individual to generate a    multi-dimensional output.-   3. A method for distributing compensation to original authors,    publishers, and any other entities that may benefits from the    licensing, sale or use of the original copyrighted content or    product based on the resale of such copyrighted content or product.-   4. A method for conducting barter transactions between members of a    service without using explicit prices or values assigned to the    items, including a one for one barter system supported by a matching    algorithm that uses as inputs the members' ‘have lists’, defined as    items owned available for barter, and ‘want lists’, defined as items    desired.-   5. A user interface framework that enables multi-dimensional    browsing of members of a platform and content or product    associations for those members in the platform, wherein the    framework integrates with the platform to enable relationships    between the dimensions displayed and enables personalization of the    browsing experience for the individual using the framework by    integrating with the platform to generate unique content across each    dimension based on characteristics of the individual using the    framework.

VII. Additional Embodiments and Conclusion

Although the commercialized embodiment described above is designed forone-way trades of CDs with each trade receiving the same trading credit,alternative embodiments of the present invention may trade other typesof articles (e.g., books, DVDs), or may allow for trading of differenttypes of articles (e.g., a book for a CD), two-way trades, and tradeswhere different amounts of credits are given for a trade, or anycombinations or permutations of these trading features. The variouspriority schemes described above may also be used in combination withthe alternative embodiments so as to compensate for any perceivedunfairness or imbalance in trading activity among members.

The present invention may be implemented with any combination ofhardware and software. If implemented as a computer-implementedapparatus, the present invention is implemented using means forperforming all of the steps and functions described above.

The present invention can be included in an article of manufacture(e.g., one or more computer program products) having, for instance,computer useable media. The media has embodied therein, for instance,computer readable program code means for providing and facilitating themechanisms of the present invention. The article of manufacture can beincluded as part of a computer system or sold separately.

It will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that changes could bemade to the embodiments described above without departing from the broadinventive concept thereof. It is understood, therefore, that thisinvention is not limited to the particular embodiments disclosed, but itis intended to cover modifications within the spirit and scope of thepresent invention.

1-102. (canceled)
 103. A computer-implemented method comprising: providing a user interface for members of a community; receiving member data associated with each member, the member data comprising member identities and article data that is associated with each article associated with each member; identifying members having associated article data that are similar to the article data associated with other members, the identifications being based on a similarity algorithm; grouping a predetermined number of members identified as having similar article data into an interest group; and enabling a member of an interest group to view the article data of other members of the interest group.
 104. The method of claim 103, further comprising: receiving a request by a first member to indicate that an article associated with the first member is available for trade; receiving a request by a second member to acquire an article; and displaying, to the second member, member data associated with members associated with the requested article and who have indicated that the article is available for trade.
 105. The method of claim 104, further comprising: receiving a request by the second member to acquire the article associated with a member selected by the second member; and notifying the selected member of the request to acquire.
 106. The method of claim 105, wherein the articles comprise electronic sound recordings and the member data comprise listen data.
 107. The method of claim 103, wherein the identification of members having similar article data is determined by a numerical representation of the similarity based on a distance function, and wherein the user interface displays the numerical representation for each of the members whose article data is displayed.
 108. The method of claim 103, wherein the similarity algorithm comprises determining the cardinal of the intersection between the article data associated with one member and the article data associated with a different member for each member of the community, wherein each member is represented as a row vector in a matrix and each item of article data associated with each member is a column vector in the matrix.
 109. The method of claim 108, wherein the similarity algorithm further comprises adding data associated with the member's most recent query to the article data associated with the member.
 110. The method of claim 103, wherein the similarity algorithm comprises computing a histogram yielding one row per member and one column per item of article data, wherein the similarity between two members is computed with the formula: Distance(X, Y)=|A|−|A inter B| wherein X and Y are two members of the community, A is the total number of article data associated with member X, B is the total number of article data associated with member Y, and |A inter B| is the total number of article data associated with member Y that is also associated with member X.
 111. The method of claim 110, wherein the similarity algorithm further comprises adding data associated with the member's most recent query to the article data associated with the member.
 112. The method of claim 110, wherein the similarity algorithm further comprises dividing Distance(X, Y) by the average number of article data associated with member X and member Y.
 113. The method of claim 103, wherein the similarity algorithm comprises: associating each item of article data with one of a plurality of genre; calculating the probability distribution for each genre associated with the article data associated with each member; wherein the similarity between two members is computed for each genre with the formula: Distance(X, Y)=Σ(p*log(p/q)) wherein X and Y are two members of the community, p is the probability distribution for a genre associated with member X, and q is the probability distribution associated with Y for the same genre.
 114. The method of claim 113, wherein the similarity algorithm further comprises adding data associated with the member's most recent query to the article data associated with the member.
 115. A system for displaying identities of members who are interested in similar articles as other members of a community, the system comprising: a processor; a module configured to control the processor to provide a user interface for members of a community; a module configured to control the processor to receive member data associated with each member, the member data comprising member identities and article data that is associated with each article associated with each member; a module configured to control the processor to identify members having associated article data that are similar to the article data associated with other members, the identification based on a similarity algorithm; a module configured to control the processor to group a predetermined number of members identified as having similar article data into an interest group; and a module configured to control the processor to enable a member of an interest group to view the article data of other members of the interest group.
 116. The system of claim 115, further comprising: a module configured to control the processor to receive a request by a first member to indicate that an article associated with the first member is available for trade; a module configured to control the processor to receive a request by a second member to acquire an article; and a module configured to control the processor to display to the second member data associated with members associated with the requested article and who have indicated that the article is available for trade.
 117. The system of claim 116, further comprising: a module configured to control the processor to receive a request by the second member to acquire the article associated with a member selected by the second member; and a module configured to control the processor to notify the selected member of the request to acquire.
 118. The system of claim 117, wherein the articles comprise electronic sound recordings and the member data comprise listen data.
 119. The system of claim 115, wherein the identification of members having similar article data is determined by a numerical representation of the similarity based on a distance function, and wherein the user interface displays the numerical representation for each of the members whose article data is displayed.
 120. The system of claim 115, wherein the similarity algorithm comprises determining the cardinal of the intersection between the article data associated with one member and the article data associated with a different member for each member of the community, wherein each member is represented as a row vector in a matrix and each item of article data associated with each member is a column vector in the matrix.
 121. The system of claim 120, wherein the similarity algorithm further comprises adding data associated with the member's most recent query to the article data associated with the member.
 122. The system of claim 115, wherein the similarity algorithm comprises computing a histogram yielding one row per member and one column per item of article data, wherein the similarity between two members is computed with the formula: Distance(X, Y)=|A|−|A inter B| wherein X and Y are two members of the community, A is the total number of article data associated with member X, B is the total number of article data associated with member Y, and |A inter B| is the total number of article data associated with member Y that is also associated with member X.
 123. The system of claim 122, wherein the similarity algorithm further comprises adding data associated with the member's most recent query to the article data associated with the member.
 124. The system of claim 122, wherein the similarity algorithm further comprises dividing Distance(X, Y) by the average number of article data associated with member X and member Y.
 125. The system of claim 115, wherein the similarity algorithm further comprises: associating each item of article data with one of a plurality of genre; calculating the probability distribution for each genre associated with the article data associated with each member; wherein the similarity between two members is computed for each genre with the formula: Distance(X, Y)=Σ(p*log(p/q)) wherein X and Y are two members of the community, p is the probability distribution for a genre associated with member X, and q is the probability distribution associated with Y for the same genre.
 126. The system of claim 125, wherein the similarity algorithm further comprises adding data associated with the member's most recent query to the article data associated with the member.
 127. A computer-implemented method comprising: providing a user interface; receiving article interest data associated with each member, the article interest data comprising: (i) article information associated with articles that each member indicates an interest in, (ii) article information associated with articles that each member owns, and (iii) article information associated with articles that each member wants to own; calculating how similar the article interest data of a member is to the article interest data of other members, comprising a similarity algorithm; and displaying the identities of a predetermined number of members calculated to have similar article interest data.
 128. The method of claim 127, further comprising: receiving a request by a first member to indicate that an article associated with the first member is available for trade; receiving a request by a second member to acquire an article; and displaying, to the second member, member data associated with members associated with the requested article and who have indicated that the article is available for trade.
 129. The method of claim 128, further comprising: receiving a request by the second member to acquire the article associated with a member selected by the second member; and notifying the selected member of the request to acquire.
 130. The method of claim 129, wherein the articles comprise electronic sound recordings and the member data comprise listen data.
 131. The method of claim 127, wherein the identification of members having similar article data is determined by a numerical representation of the similarity based on a distance function, and wherein the user interface displays the numerical representation for each of the members whose article data is displayed.
 132. The method of claim 127, wherein the similarity algorithm comprises determining the cardinal of the intersection between the article data associated with one member and the article data associated with a different member for each member of the community, wherein each member is represented as a row vector in a matrix and each item of article data associated with each member is a column vector in the matrix.
 133. The method of claim 132, wherein the similarity algorithm further comprises adding data associated with the member's most recent query to the article data associated with the member.
 134. The method of claim 127, wherein the similarity algorithm comprises computing a histogram yielding one row per member and one column per item of article data, wherein the similarity between two members is computed with the formula: Distance(X, Y)=|A|−|A inter B| wherein X and Y are two members of the community, A is the total number of article data associated with member X, B is the total number of article data associated with member Y, and |A inter B| is the total number of article data associated with member Y that is also associated with member X.
 135. The method of claim 134, wherein the similarity algorithm further comprises adding data associated with the member's most recent query to the article data associated with the member.
 136. The method of claim 134, wherein the similarity algorithm further comprises dividing Distance(X, Y) by the average number of article data associated with member X and member Y.
 137. The method of claim 127, wherein the similarity algorithm further comprises: associating each item of article data with one of a plurality of genre; calculating the probability distribution for each genre associated with the article data associated with each member; wherein the similarity between two members is computed for each genre with the formula: Distance(X, Y)=(p*log(p/q)) wherein X and Y are two members of the community, p is the probability distribution for a genre associated with member X, and q is the probability distribution associated with Y for the same genre.
 138. The method of claim 137, wherein the similarity algorithm further comprises adding data associated with the member's most recent query to the article data associated with the member.
 139. A system for displaying identities of members who are interested in similar articles as other members of a community, the system comprising: a processor; a module configured to control the processor to provide a user interface; a module configured to control the processor to receive article interest data associated with each member, the article interest data comprising: (i) article information associated with articles that each member indicates an interest in, (ii) article information associated with articles that each member owns, and (iii) article information associated with articles that each member wants to own; a module configured to control the processor to calculate how similar the article interest data of a member is to the article interest data of other members, comprising a similarity algorithm; and a module configured to control the processor to display the identities of a predetermined number of members calculated to have similar article interest data
 140. The system of claim 139, further comprising: a module configured to control the processor to receive a request by a first member to indicate that an article associated with the first member is available for trade; a module configured to control the processor to receive a request by a second member to acquire an article; a module configured to control the processor to display, to the second member, member data associated with members associated with the requested article and who have indicated that the article is available for trade a module configured to control the processor to receive a request by the second member to acquire the article associated with a member selected by the second member; and a module configured to control the processor to notify the selected member of the request to acquire. 